Ghosts
by The Thistle Girl
Summary: The house is full of strange doors and hallways and odd sounds that come up through the floor when Cassian sleeps. "There are no such things as ghosts," Father says, but Cassian hears them almost every night. Murdoc kidnaps Mac again while Cassian is living with him, and when Cassian disobeys the rules and finds the strange person in the basement, he only wants a friend...
1. Chapter 1

Wrote this story a while ago, but finally got around to posting it over to here. It's one of my favorites that I've written; even though I was initially really skeptical about my ability to write a child's POV. Disclaimers: If I owned the show or the characters, this would be how the next Murdoc episode played out.

* * *

They've lived in three different houses since Father came and took him away from the place with all the strangers, but Cassian likes this house best. The house is big, and old, and it's not near any others. It's quiet and he can sit outside and draw and no one is yelling or driving past or playing in the road. There's no one else around for miles, he thinks.

It's nice outside, and interesting inside. The house is full of strange doors and hallways and odd sounds that come up through the floor when Cassian sleeps.

"There are no such things as ghosts," Father says, but Father also says he doesn't hear the crying, moaning ghost sounds. Cassian hears them almost every night.

It's been two weeks now, he thinks, since he heard them the first time. It wasn't their first night in the house, but it was the day after Father came home after his last trip. A long trip where he had to ask someone to come stay with Cassian. Cassian liked Molly but Father said she wouldn't be taking care of him again, even though she made the best grilled cheese sandwiches and played her ukelele at night.

Maybe her singing made the ghost curious, because the night after Father came home Cassian heard it the first time. It sounded hurt and scared, screaming like Cassian did when he shut his thumb in a car door. He doesn't think ghosts can be hurt, they don't have bodies; but maybe they can get scared.

He feels sorry for the scared ghost, because every night it screams, and sometimes it's talking but it must speak a strange ghost language because it's all muffled and he can't understand it. Some nights he thinks it's crying. He hears the soft sobbing come through the floorboards and he wonders if you can hug a ghost because this one sounds like it needs a hug.

If he can find the ghost, maybe he can make friends with it. Cassian thinks ghosts aren't so scary. They're just lonely and sad because people run away from them. _I'm lonely too, Mr. Ghost._ Cassian doesn't have any friends, he doesn't go to a real school, and Father says not to talk to strangers because strangers are dangerous.

"You and I are all we need," he says when Cassian says he wants friends his age like children in books have. "Other people wouldn't understand us. We're different." Cassian doesn't want to be different. He wants to be normal. "Family is the most important thing," Father says. "No one should ever be more important to you than your family." And Father is all the family Cassian has.

One morning Father leaves, he says there's a job he has to do and he'll be home tonight. Cassian misses him, but it gives him time to explore. Father doesn't like it when he goes looking around the house too much. There are lots of locked rooms that he says he has his tools in.

The basement door is locked, but Cassian knows where Father keeps the keys. He puts them away every morning before breakfast. He thinks Cassian doesn't see, but he's always seen more than people know. He's learned that you hear more interesting things that way. Grownups don't talk as much when they know he knows what they're doing or saying.

People say they protect him for his own good, but Cassian doesn't want to be protected. He wants to learn, he wants to make friends.

He takes the keys out of the drawer and opens the basement door. He's not allowed down there, Father says something about rotting steps, but that's where the ghost sounds are coming from. He takes a flashlight from the kitchen cabinet before he goes. _I'm eight, not stupid._ He thinks people in books who go in dark places without lights are silly. _No wonder bad things happen._

The stairs are creaky, but they don't feel like they'll fall apart. He can't hear the ghost anymore. _Do ghosts sleep during the day, like people sleep at night?_ He doesn't want to wake it up because he doesn't like it when people make noise at night and startle him, but maybe it will be so happy to have a friend it won't care.

There are three more locked doors in the basement, and Cassian has to find the right key for each of them. It takes a while and he's getting hungry. Maybe he should go back upstairs and eat the sandwich Father left for him in the fridge. But if he does the ghost might find somewhere else to hide.

He opens the last door and it swings on creaky hinges. There's something pale inside, crouched against the wall, and Cassian drops the flashlight and makes a very not-brave gasp. _I'm not afraid of ghosts!_ But now that there might be one right in front of him he has to admit it's a little scary. _What if I can't make it understand I want to be friends?_

He picks up the flashlight and points it shakily at the ghost, and then he feels very foolish.

It's not a ghost. It's a person. Cassian is slightly disappointed. People aren't as interesting as ghosts. The person is huddled up, arms around their legs and head resting on their knees. The reason they look so pale is that now that Cassian can tell it's not a ghost he can see that the person probably doesn't have any clothes, and their skin is pale. Cassian's cheeks are turning red, people shouldn't just wander around a house without clothes on, but maybe there's something wrong. _Maybe they don't have any_ , he thinks, because some people in books had to wear rags, and maybe this person just can't find any rags because the house is too clean.

They look sad. Their shoulders are shaking like they're crying or shivering. They're whispering something, and it sounds like "no, not again."

Then the person moves, just a little, and Cassian remembers he should probably see why there's a person in the basement of the house. That's not normal, not even in books. Usually people who appear unexpectedly are either fairy godmothers or wounded, landless knights or people trying to hide from someone chasing them.

Cassian doesn't feel very brave right now but in books the boys and girls are never afraid. They always talk to the strange people and then they usually have adventures. Maybe this is the kind of person trying to hide, _because they can't be a fairy godmother and knights are supposed to have armor and horses_ , and Cassian can help them. He's never had a person to help hide before. He asks quietly, "Who are you?"

The stranger jumps, like Cassian's voice scared them. _Maybe they thought I was the ghost and they're afraid of ghosts._

"Hi, I'm Cassian. I'm not a ghost." He holds out his hand but the strange person doesn't shake it. _That's not very polite._ "What's your name?"

The stranger...and suddenly Cassian remembers what he was told about strangers and thinks about running...just lifts their head and looks at him. Cassian moves his flashlight and the person blinks and jumps away, like the light hurts his eyes. When he moves the light away, he can see that the stranger, a young man, younger than Father, has big blue eyes. But his face is all dirty and there are red smears all over it.

"Did you fall down?" His face is all bloody like Cassian's was when he fell off his bike.

The man just shakes his head slowly, blinking and looking at Cassian like he's having a hard time seeing him. _Maybe he can't talk. Maybe that's why he's all alone and sad and no one takes care of him._

He looks like the people Cassian sees on street corners when he has to go somewhere in the car with Father. He's all dirty and his hair is messy and it looks yellow but it's hard to tell. Usually the papers those people hold up are asking for help.

This person must need help very, very much because he looks sick and hurt and he doesn't have clothes. It's not just his face that's bloody. There are cuts all over him and some are bleeding and some are scabby and some are nasty and oozing.

His legs look wrong, like they're twisted or broken. Cassian's never broken a bone before but when people break them in books it hurts. _Maybe that's why he looks so sad. Maybe it hurts._ People are supposed to get casts when they break bones, and he doesn't have any.

Cassian can't make a cast but he knows when Father puts band-aids on things they don't hurt as much and it makes them heal. "Do you need a band-aid? There's a box of them upstairs, I could get some."

"No, I'm all right." The strange person's voice is all shaky, like he's cold. And he doesn't have any clothes, so maybe he is. _Why would you want to hide down here in the dark and cold and damp?_ Cassian thinks his own room is cold, but he can see his own breath here.

"You don't look all right. You're all bloody and your legs are hurt. And you look cold. Do you want a blanket? Or a sweater? Or a coat?" Cassian could go get him food too. That's what people do in books.

The person shakes his head, and his words sound funny, like Cassian's did when he had to have an extra tooth taken out. He could hear himself talking and it was all slow and mumbly and wobbly like that. "No, I don't need anything. You can go."

But Cassian doesn't want to go away. This is the first person he's been able to talk to besides Father and Molly, and Molly was here a long time ago.

"I could get you some food. Are you hungry?"

"No, I'm not." But his face looks like he wants it. It's the same face Cassian makes when Father asks him if he's happy here with his books and the house and Father. He pretends he is because Father doesn't want to hear that Cassian wants to go to school and have real friends and talk to people.

"Can I talk to you?"

The person turns his head away and shivers. "Please, if you want to help me, go away."

"I know I shouldn't be down here but Father is gone and he won't be mad. I just want a friend."

The man looks up. "Are you sure he's not here?" He moves like he might try to stand up, like he forgot his legs are hurt. And then he yelps and stops moving; it must hurt. Cassian wants to help him but he doesn't know how.

"Do you need to get up?" The person shakes his head and there are tears running down his face. Cassian sets down the flashlight and tries to give the person a hug, but he doesn't want it. He jumps away and starts crying more when he moves his legs.

Cassian thinks of something while he's watching the person try to stop crying. "I need to call you something. You can't just be the strange person in the basement."

The man sniffles. "If you promise not to tell anyone else, ever, you can call me Mac, okay?"

"Hi Mac." It's a nice name. Cassian thinks it sounds like a name someone would have in a book.

"You need to go. Please."

Mac looks like he might cry, and Cassian doesn't know why. He says he isn't cold or hungry, and nothing hurts. _Is he lonely? Like the ghost?_ But if he's lonely he wouldn't ask Cassian to go away.

"What do you want?"

Mac whimpers, like a hurt puppy. "I want to get out of here. I want to go home." He shakes his head again, and Cassian sees something wrong with his arm, where there's blood coming from a small round poke like a bee sting.

"I could help you get upstairs," Cassian says softly. He's not sure how because Mac is a lot bigger than him and his legs don't work and Cassian can't carry him, but they can figure something out, right? That's how it goes in books.

"Please, please just go." And then Cassian hears a door slam. He's going to be in so much trouble when Father finds out he broke the rules, but it's too late to go back now. And he found a person, Mac. Maybe Father will say it's okay if he knows Cassian was trying to help Mac.

Father will help Mac, Cassian knows he will. _He put ice on my cheek when I ran into a door, and he always kisses my cuts._

He hears footsteps on the stairs. "Father, I'm sorry I came in the basement but there's a person down here and he needs help. His name is Mac and he's hurt and cold and he wants to go home." Cassian looks back at Mac happily, because Father's a lot smarter than Cassian and he'll know what to do to fix Mac. But Mac looks scared and sad.

"I told you not to tell anyone about me," he whispers.

"It's just Father. He's not 'anyone'. I tell him everything," Cassian says proudly. Father says there shouldn't be secrets in the house. So he has to know about Mac.

Father comes down the steps. "I see. Cassian, you shouldn't be down here and you know it."

Mac flinches, like he's afraid of Father. _He shouldn't be scared. Father is nice. He reads me stories and kisses me goodnight and tells me he loves me. I know he might seem scary but he just wants to keep me safe._

"You'll help him, won't you?" Cassian pleads, because he likes Mac, even if Mac is quiet and doesn't want to be his friend yet. When they help him he'll know Cassian's a nice person and then he'll want to be friends. That's how it works in books.

"Cassian, go upstairs and put on your headphones."

There's something wrong and cold in Father's voice. Cassian knows better than to argue when he talks like that. Maybe he's really mad that Cassian broke the rules and talked to a stranger. But Mac needed help, and if Father can help him, Cassian won't mind being scolded.

"We'll talk about this later," Father says. "And I'll remind you how important the rules are to keep us safe. But I'm going to take care of Mac first." Cassian smiles as he leaves, and he doesn't know why Mac starts crying again and looks so scared. _Father's going to make sure he's okay._

The ghost cries louder that night and Cassian decides he'll look even harder for it tomorrow. _It's just lonely. It needs a friend._


	2. Chapter 2

Cassian gets a stern lecture the next morning, about not breaking rules and not talking to strangers. He asks if Father helped Mac and Father says he took care of things. "Don't go down there anymore," he tells Cassian. "It's not safe."

Father sounds angrier than normal. Cassian can tell he's trying to be quiet and kind, but he knows he really upset Father. Like the time he asked where Molly went to and if she could come back, or the time he asked if they could go back and see the nice Mrs. Webber who came and talked to him sometimes. _She was nice and she always wanted to see my pictures._

Father gets very, very angry sometimes, and even though Cassian knows Father is nice and kind, he gets scared when that happens. So he stays away from the keys and the basement and the crying ghost.

Father doesn't leave again, so that's part of it. He stays home, and he tucks Cassian in at night and makes them waffles with strawberries in the morning and reads books out loud and makes funny voices for Frog and Toad. He shows Cassian how to catch bugs and pin them to a board to make a collection to study, but Cassian doesn't like that so much because sometimes the bugs are still alive.

"Doesn't that hurt them?" he asks Father.

"They suffer so we can learn from them. It's a noble purpose for an insect," Father says. Cassian doesn't argue. Sometimes Father scares him.

But his curiosity is bigger than his fear. When Father leaves again, after someone calls him on the phone and he says something about a phoenix, which reminds Cassian of his books about wizards and magic, Cassian decides to look for the ghost.

He brings another person to watch over Cassian, but this girl isn't as nice as Molly. She doesn't play with Cassian or read with him, and she watches the doors and her phone really nervously. It's easy to slip away from her. She barely seems to know Cassian is there. She just sits on the couch and bites her nails and twists her necklace. She seems really worried about something but Cassian isn't sure what.

Cassian takes the keys and goes back to the basement. _That has to be where the ghost is._ He's heard it every night now. It doesn't scream or talk much anymore. It just cries. It must be getting lonelier. Cassian doesn't know why it doesn't just come to his room and make friends, but maybe it's a shy ghost.

He can find all the right door keys easily now, and once he gets inside the third room he's ready to look for another door when he sees something by the wall. Again.

Mac is still there. Cassian is suprised. He thought Father would have taken Mac home, where he wanted to go. He looks just as sick and scared and cold as he was last time. _Why didn't Father help him? Wouldn't Mac let him?_

Mac barely moves now. He's crying, and suddenly Cassian realizes _this_ is the ghost sound. _There was never any ghost. It was only Mac._ Mac must be hurting a lot if he's crying and screaming like that all the time.

He actually looks worse than he did last time. There is more blood and more cuts, and he has a black eye and his nose looks wrong.

He looks up when Cassian comes in, and his eyes look so sad and hopeless. Cassian shivers. When Mac sees who is in the door, his whole body seems to crumble, like he was holding himself up waiting to see who was coming in.

"Mac?" Cassian asks. "Why are you still here? I thought Father was going to help you."

Mac's only answer is a choking sob. He gasps and Cassian thinks his breathing sounds funny, like something is rattling around inside his chest. His legs don't look any better than they did last time either.

"Why are you crying?" Cassian feels really uncomfortable. Grown-ups aren't supposed to cry like this, and Mac is a grown-up. Only little kids get to sob and get all snotty-nosed and whimpery. Father says Cassian is too big for that now. He doesn't know why Mac is crying so much but he must be really sick or hurt.

"I need your help, please. If you don't help me I'm going to die." Mac whispers, and then he starts to cough. It sounds bad, worse than getting-sick-because-you-played-in-the-rain-too-long bad. Cassian's never heard anybody cough like that and it's scary.

Mac wipes his finger against one of the cuts on his arm and then starts writing numbers on the floor with blood.

"Please," Mac whispers. "If your father isn't here, call this phone number and then set down the phone and leave it there."

"Why?"

"I need to go home. Please. Can you help me get home?" He's crying again. Cassian reaches for him and hugs him, even though he's all dirty and bloody and he smells really bad. Mac starts shaking and tries to push him away, but he doesn't push very hard and Cassian finally feels him stop shoving.

"I'm gonna help you, Mac. I'll get you home." Cassian can do this. He's read about lots of heroes in books. He can be one.

Kate is gone when Cassian gets back upstairs. He can hear her out in the yard yelling for him. But he has to call. Father took his phone, but Kate has one.

Cassian goes outside and Kate grabs him and shakes him and asks him where he's been. He can't tell her everything but he tells her he needs the phone. She doesn't want to give it to him but when he says Father wanted him to have it she does. She seems scared of Father. Most people are and Cassian doesn't know why.

He calls the number and then sets down the phone. A man's voice answers and starts asking questions. Cassian isn't sure what to say. Should he tell the person Mac wanted him to call them? But the man sounds really scary and loud and Cassian doesn't want to talk to him. So he just leaves the phone on the table and goes outside with a book. When he comes back the phone isn't on anymore.

Father doesn't come home when he said he would and Kate gets more worried and bites her nails until they bleed. Cassian goes to bed and lays there listening to Mac crying in the basement. He wants to go see him but Mac kept telling him to stay away. And then he sees lights outside.

 _Father must be home._ He's going to ask why Father didn't help Mac yet. He has to have a good reason.

But there are too many cars. Cassian gets out of bed, and he hears Kate downstairs opening the door to someone who knocks really loudly. He gets to the bottom of the stairs where he can see the door. Kate is talking to the person there, and then she starts to cry and gets in the back of one of the cars. _What's happening?_

Someone comes inside, a big man with lots of funny-looking guns. He looks like someone from a book, and Cassian is a little scared of him. He doesn't know who these people are and he's never seen them before, but he saw people like them at the old place, before Father came.

He puts on his headphones, because when he's afraid the music helps.

The big man crouches down in front of him and Cassian looks up. He's not so scary down here, he has kind, worried brown eyes and short hair that sticks up funny in the middle.

"Hi, I'm Jack. You like music, buddy?" Cassian nods. _He's a stranger. I shouldn't talk to him._ But he just wants someone to talk to because Father is gone and Kate is gone and he's here by himself.

"Listen, buddy, I'm not gonna hurt you. But I have to know if someone else is in the house, okay?"

Cassian isn't supposed to tell 'anyone' about Mac. But Mac asked him to call people. Maybe this is his family and they came to get him and take him home. He said he wanted to go home.

And then Mrs. Webber comes in.

"Hi Cassian."

"Mrs. Webber!" She's smiling but she looks really worried.

"I'm glad to see you." She hugs him. He likes Mrs. Webber hugs because she's one of the only people who's anywhere close to as short as him and it's nice to have a friend that you can look at face to face. He wonders if that's what having other kids around feels like.

"Where's Father?"

"He can't come right now but he sent me to come see you." Something about that feels wrong, but Cassian doesn't care. He missed Mrs. Webber.

"Did you call someone earlier? From this house?" Cassian isn't sure how to answer. It wasn't Mrs. Webber on the phone, but it might have been Mr. Jack.

"I'm looking for someone I care about." Mrs. Webber pulls out a picture. "I really want to see him again."

The person in the picture looks happy and clean and smiley, not sad and hurt like Mac. But he has the same big blue eyes. "There's someone named Mac in the basement, he looks a little like your picture. But he told me not to tell anyone."

"It's okay, we're his family." Cassian smiles. _I was right. They're gonna take him home now like he wanted._

"I can help you find him. The basement doors are locked but I know where the keys are."

"Okay, buddy, show us." Mr. Jack sounds like he's trying to sound happy and not worried, but he's worried. _Why do grown-ups think they can hide what they're feeling all the time?_ He pulls out the keys.

"The basement door is over here."

Mrs. Webber holds his arms. "Let Jack go down there, okay? He'll take care of Mac."

 _Last time someone said they'd take care of Mac, it was Father. And Mac didn't get any better._

He worries the whole time, even though Mrs. Webber says it's going to be okay. He doesn't think Mac is okay. He's really hurt, and when he tells Mrs Webber she gets teary-eyed and holds him closer.

"I'm sorry I didn't help you find him sooner. He wanted to go home." Cassian says. "I didn't know you were his family." He can see why Mac wanted to go back to Mrs. Webber because she's nice.

"It's okay," Mrs. Webber says. "We can take him home now."

Cassian sees Mr. Jack come back up the stairs, carrying Mac in his arms. Mac is holding on tight to Mr. Jack's vest, and he's crying. Mr. Jack has his arms wrapped really tightly around him like he's afraid he might drop Mac by accident.

"Hey, kid, it's okay. I got you. We're gonna take you home, okay?"

"Jack…" Mac whispers. He's sobbing and sniffling, and Mr. Jack rubs his hands up and down Mac's back like Father does when Cassian has nightmares. "You came. You came."

"Yeah, kid. I'm always gonna come, you got it?" Mr. Jack is holding Mac really carefully, so he doesn't hurt his legs any more, but every time he takes another step, Mac flinches and yelps. Mr. Jack looks like he's going to start crying every time it happens. His face is already wet.

Mac looks a lot worse in the light. He's really skinny and there are so many cuts all over him. He's filthy and shaking and he can't stop crying. Cassian feels really sorry for him. _I'm glad someone came for him. He was so lonely and scared down there._

Mrs. Webber starts crying when she sees Mac.

"Mac, what did that (and Mr. Jack says a very bad word that Cassian isn't allowed to use) do to you?"

"I...please...I don't want...I can't…" Mac starts shaking and crying harder. Cassian comes up and touches his hand, it's cold and shaky and dirty.

"It's okay, Mac, we found your family. You can go home now."

Mac doesn't want to let go of Mr. Jack. He has handfuls of Mr. Jack's shirt and he won't hold Cassian's hand. "Jack, don't leave," he says quietly. _He was so lonely._ Cassian feels bad that he didn't go talk to Mac more often. _Maybe he looks so awful because he was all alone._

"I'm not goin' anywhere, Bud," Mr. Jack says quietly. _He must be Mac's father. He's so nice to him._

Finally Mac notices Cassian's standing there. "He helped me," Mac says quietly. "He called you."

"Thank you, Cassian," Mrs. Webber says, and she hugs him again.

Cassian smiles at Mac. "I just wanted you to go home and be happy."

"And you're going to come home with us too," Mr. Jack says. "Let's go." He takes Mac out to the cars and Cassian follows. He's sleepy and confused and he wants Father to come back, but for now he trusts Mrs. Webber and Mr. Jack. They're good to Mac and that's all he needs to know.

Mr. Jack doesn't want to let him sit next to Mac on the the ride back, but Mrs. Webber gives Mr. Jack an angry look and says to let him. So Cassian sits there and helps them start cleaning up some of the cuts and gives Mr. Jack a hand wrapping Mac up in a blanket so he doesn't have to be shy about everyone seeing him.

Mac starts falling asleep soon; he must be really tired like Cassian is. Mr. Jack holds one of his hands and Mrs. Webber holds the other, and Cassian puts one hand on top of Mac's. Mac smiles at him a little and turns his hand over so his fingers wrap around Cassian's, and Cassian smiles. _I finally have a friend. A real friend._


End file.
